The Joint Officers of The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) have approved implementation of a proposed electronic, on-line information system named NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ®. The system will be set up on the World Wide Web of the Internet.
The goal of NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ®, which was conceived under the direction of the AANS/CNS, Joint Computer Task Force, is to provide a premier electronic information resource to the neurosurgical community, available by computer via the Internet. The quantity and quality of information provided will allow the practicing neurosurgeon and those people working in related fields an opportunity to improve the state of the art of neurosurgery, improve personal computer skill levels, and enhance their socio-economic status through improved business management. This service will be available to all AANS/CNS members.
The NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ® project will be jointly owned and operated by the AANS and CNS. It will be developed, administered, and maintained by the AANS National Office staff, under the direction of Assistant Executive Director David J. Martin, CAE. Richard Toselli, MD, will serve as editor.
Outcomes Database
The centerpiece of NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ® will be an “outcomes” database. This database will collect CPT code and outcome data on neurosurgical operations from AANS and CNS members for the purpose of research and the advancement of neurosurgery. The data will be kept secure in a manner that prevents the outcome of any particular procedure and the identity of persons involved from being discovered. System details include the following:
- Basic Features – The system will allow authorized users to enter medical data into the system, to edit that data, to search and browse that data relationally, and to perform limited statistical analyses of the data. All of these functions will be accessible via the World Wide Web.
- Medical Data – The medical data will consist of patient demographics, medical procedure information, CPT code information, and neurosurgeon demographics.
- Database Statistics – The system will support tabulations and simple statistics on the data. For example, it will be possible to compute the number of procedures of a given CPT code that were performed by a given neurosurgeon, or at a given hospital, within a given state.
- Relational Searching/Browsing – The system will allow relational searching on the database. There will also be some browsing capability, such as selecting database records by patient. Related records will be accessible, when possible, via hyperlinks.
- Scaling Requirements – The system will be capable of handling several hundred thousand records, each of roughly fifty fields and approximately five kilobytes in size. Multiple users will be able to access the system simultaneously.
CPT Coding Assistant
The CPT Coding Assistant will be a relational data base that provides users with an automated CPT coding resource. This program is designed to ensure accurate coding of procedures performed by neurosurgeons.
Other Proposed Services
While there are a number of sites on the World Wide Web offering free information to the neurosurgical community, there is no place that offers the scope and quality of information and services proposed for NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ®. The ability of the AANS/CNS to offer both these unique services and as well as a wide variety of information from a single site makes this service a “one of a kind” offering.
In addition to the outcomes data base, NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ® services will include:
Scientific Information
- Indexes and Scientific Abstracts from the Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery in a searchable database. Will include every published article for the past five years. Surgical Neurology and other related publications may also be included, providing licensing and copyright issues can be addressed.
- AANS/CNS annual meeting abstracts
- Research grant registry
- RFPs for neurosurgical investigative activities
General News and Information
- AANS and CNS News
- Joint Section News
- Legislative and socio-economic news
- Technology updates
- National Institutes of Health updates
- Positions available
- Fellowship and Residency program availability
- CME credit tracking and reporting
- Bulletin Boards for posting of information by members and subscribers with similar interests.
- Communications from the Leadership, including messages from the Presidents of AANS and CNS as well as members of the Boards of Directors.
- Hot Topics
- Neurosurgery Shopping Service, which will provide information about, and on-line purchasing of, AANS/CNS products and services.
- Meeting Schedules and Registration, including access to a complete schedule of AANS/CNS events and the ability to register and pay on line for the Annual Meetings and Professional Development courses.
- A Product Information Section will allow companies who supply products or services to neurosurgeons or individuals in related fields to post information describing those products or devices. Unlike print advertising, this service will have the capacity to be interactive.
- Hypertext Links to other neurosurgical and medical sites on the Internet
- Interactive Web Chat, which will provide the ability for several subscribers to engage in an on-line dialog while sharing and viewing images. These “meetings” may be moderated or not as deemed appropriate.
- Surveys
A preliminary demonstration of NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ® will be offered at the CNS Annual Meeting in October. The full NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL ® system will be introduced at the AANS Annual Meeting in April 1996.